Sailing into uncharted waters – Another first for Team Melbourne Uni!

• NEWS
• 07 Dec, 2004 10:26:00 AM

Sailing into uncharted waters – Another first for Team Melbourne Uni!

The highest bidder in the auction will have naming rights to the boat which will be branded with their corporate image, alongside the team’s other top-tier sponsors.

On December 8 at 1:10pm, one of the youngest-ever crews to sail in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will break more records as the first sporting team in Australia to sell a sponsorship package on eBay.com.au

The team of 10 students from the University of Melbourne, led by skipper Chris Lewin, will attempt the notoriously hazardous 628 nautical mile race between Sydney and Hobart starting on Boxing Day this year.

With an average age of just 21, Team Melbourne Uni will make history as the first student team to compete in the race, and now their new marketing strategy is breaking further ground in Australian sports sponsorship.

The seven-day auction, on the online marketplace, eBay.com.au, will be the first of its kind in Australia, with the successful bidder joining Channel Seven and The University of Melbourne as TMU’s premium sponsors at the team’s launch on December 15 at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the Rolex Sydney Hobart organising Club.

Skipper Chris Lewin believes the auction is another example of the team’s ground-breaking approach to the race.

“The entire team is always looking for a fresh approach to the campaign, we’ve had extensive mental coaching, we’ve done a dry run less than a month before the race, and when one of us suggested this idea we jumped on it,” he says.

The purchaser of this package, which has been valued at over $500,000 by the leading Australian marketing company in the field of corporate sponsorship of team sport, Leverage, Inc. will join Channel Seven and The University of Melbourne as one of TMU’s top-tier sponsors.

“Nobody else out on the water is doing what we are so sponsors can be assured of significant exposure in the lead up and during the race,” says Lewin.

The highest bidder in the auction will have naming rights to the boat which will be branded with their corporate image, alongside the team’s other top-tier sponsors: The University of Melbourne and Channel Seven.

eBay was chosen to hold the auction because of its global reach of 114 million members. The beginning of the auction will reflect the race’s official start time of 1:10pm on Boxing Day, 26 December.

Despite their youth, the crew of TMU are confident that their experience, passion, and intensive training schedules will ensure them success in the 2004 Rolex Sydney Hobart. The goal of TMU is not simply to participate in the race but to win it on Overall handicap.